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Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters. All I own here is the plot and the OFC :)
Her fingers glide lightly over the keys as she finishes the first song, something about paper planes and finding somebody, and begins something that sounds slightly sad in an odd way.
He watches her from his resting place, in that coffin, listening carefully to her gentle voice. She's not annoying like Beth, and he wonders what it even is about Beth's singing that annoys him so.
"I'll never talk again
Oh, boy, you've left me speechless
You've left me speechless, so speechless
And I'll never love again
Oh, friend, you've left me speechless
You've left me speechless, so speechless...
He finds himself captivated by her soft voice as she sings. He's not sure what the song is. He usually prefered country or rock rather than this style. But still, there's something about the words, Cheyenne's voice and the piano that has him listening intently to every note.
The candles dimly lighting the room flicker now and then, and he takes note of how her golden-blonde hair seems to shimmer and glow with it. Long and silky, strangely hanging in a ponytail like Beth's instead of the usual, messy side-braid.
He can't help but wonder if it's as soft as it looks.
Would you give it all up
Could you give it all up
If I promised, boy, to you
That I'll never talk again...
And I'll never love again...
I'll never write a song
Won't even sing along
I'll never love again
Suddenly, he finds himself giving in to the forbidden thoughts swirling in the back of his mind.
What would those beautiful, naturally pouty lips taste like against his?
What would those long, golden tresses look like fanned out around her head like a halo, her angel-face smiling up at him as he leaned over her to steal another kiss?
What would that soft, soothing voice sound like crying his name, his praises as he took her gently, all his pent up love and want coming to the surface?
He felt horrible thinking that way, quick to push the dirty thoughts back into the darkest recesses of his mind. Cheyenne was a beautiful young woman who surely didn't feel anything toward dirty, redneck trash like himself. She only put up with him because they needed each other in this new, horror movie world they were surviving in.
Some men may follow me
But you choose death and company...
Why you so speechless?...
When she's finished the sad-sounding tune, she sighs softly, standing up and blowing out the candles lining the room one by one.
She quietly goes over to the fancy sette where he had layed his crossbow and picks the weapon up, taking almost more care than he does when handling it as she lays it on one of the chairs lined up in front of the casket like an audience.
Just before she lays down, she blows the last candle out, plunging the room into inky darkness, Beth still fast asleep in the single bedroom down the hall.
He can just make out the outline of her body on the sette, curled up in a ball to keep warm as she snuggles down on the cushions. Silently, he settles back against the satin pillow under his head, surprised again at how cushioned and comfortable the casket ironically is.
And from the darkness, a small, angel-like voice calls out a timid, quiet; "Goodnight, Daryl..." and he feels his heart skip a beat at the sound of her voice.
"Night," he grunts, trying to sound as gruff as always. But strangely, his voice disobeys his mind, and the word comes out softer, more meaningful than it normally would, and he feels a mixture of foolish and glad when she sighs contentedly. He knows she's smiling to herself, even in the darkness.
Beth is safe down the hall in the single bed, and Cheyenne is safe here in the room a mere two feet away from him. He is safe. They can finally have one good nights sleep without worry since the fall of the prison and the seperation.
And he welcomes the peace that washes over him as he slowly falls into the black oblivion of dreamless sleep.
~*#*~
The next night, sitting at the small kitchen table, just before their new little world of slight happiness comes crashing down, Daryl almost lets his feelings for Cheyenne slip.
It's Beth's fault. She's the one prodding him about "what changed his mind", his outlook on this new, dangerous and horrific world they now exsist in.
Beth had had a part in his change of mind, but Cheyenne played an even bigger roll. And somehow, even though he wanted to, he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from the deep pools of baby blue staring back at him from across the table.
Beth's quiet "oh" is the only thing that breaks the trance the two seem to be in all at once. And Daryl feels his heart racing in his chest at the way Cheyenne was looking at him.
Was he dreaming when he thought he saw pure, unadulterated love radiating from her blue orbits? Or was it all reality and she did truely care for him in more ways than just friendship? He just couldn't understand.
The moment was ruined by the walker herd that nearly trampled him to get inside the house mere minutes later. Beth was gone the next. Taken. And now it was just he and Cheyenne. Left behind. Alone, yet together.
Oddly enough, when he and Cheyenne join Joe and his group of roughians, and Daryl is pretty much forced to "claim" her, she doesn't complain. Instead, she thanks him for saving her from the ratty-looking little hick named Len who would undoubtedly rape her the first chance he got.
And even stranger, when Len is dead and gone after the spat he stirred up with Daryl, sealing his own fate, Cheyenne still stays close to him. As if she really does want to belong to him.
As stupid as it is, he thinks back to a time when he was younger, watching a movie with his mother about a woman and a man who turned into animals by day and night. What was it called? "Lady"---something? Then it comes to him.
"Ladyhawke". By day, the woman was a hawk, by night, the man a wolf.
It was a stupid movie in his opinion. A romantic waste of time. But one line still remains remembered, and he can't help but think of it as he lays down beside Cheyenne on a blanket spread on a dirty kitchen floor the night before they find Rick, Michonne and Carl, the claimers taking up residence in the living room and one bedroom of the tiny house, refusing to let the newcomers even have a chance at getting a semi-comfortable place to sleep for one night.
And as Cheyenne snuggles in, tight against his chest, his arm draped over her waist loosely, protectively, that line pops out of nowhere and into his head once again after all those years.
Always together...Eternally apart...